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I Have a Lover – Quarter-time Comments

I pretty much like this weekender, because it is engaging enough to make me look forward to it every week. It is not without its flaws of course, like some of the side characters that are simply meant to fill up air-time and they’re not funny at all despite the comedic moments.

We spend a whooping 9 episodes to cover the entire three months prior to what happened in the first 10 minutes or so of Episode 1. More questions were raised among those episodes, though with no immediate answers. I think Chairman Choi dotes on Hae-kang not just because of her ability, but because he feels guilty about causing the death of her father. Apparently Chairman Choi stole the drug that Hae-kang’s biological father came up with, and filed for the transfer of the patent immediately after murdering (or it could have been an accident, as makjangs always do) her father. I hope we do get an answer of why Hae-kang and Yong-gi are separated, and why Hae-kang’s mother never looked for Yong-gi and Grandma.

But anyway, Hae-kang eventually “died” in place of Yong-gi, as was in the beginning of Episode 1 and the end of Episode 9 (or 10, I can’t remember), and gets rescued by Baek Seok, who recognises her as Yong-gi. Four years has passed since then, Hae-kang lives a new life as Yong-gi, with a complete loss of memory of her ownself as Hae-kang. The Chois except Jin-eon knows about her death, and he’s abroad with Seolli over these years. But fate has it that he and Hae-kang met again, not long after he’s returned to Korea. Naturally he’s confused and was convinced she IS Hae-kang, but she has absolutely no recollection of him.

I thought it is interesting that Seolli is slowly evolving into another Hae-kang, as predicted by Jin-eon’s irritating shit-stirrer sister Jin-ri. It is also telling that Seolli revealed that Jin-eon has never said “I love you” to her before, and throws a tantrum at the apartment prepared for her by her future mother-in-law, because the decoration is not to her liking, but rather to Hae-kang’s liking. I also like the detail of Jin-eon’s mother developing dementia, because it is definitely adding to the dramatic aspect of the storytelling. Anyway, Seolli is right that Jin-eon has never really forgotten about Hae-kang, despite his insistence that he has. It would not have bothered him this much to see “Yong-gi”, the woman who looks exactly like Hae-kang, if he has truly let go of her.

I’d also like to know what exactly happened to the real Yong-gi, because all we’re told so far is she’s away in China. I believe the documentary PD has something to do with her absence, especially since now he is no longer a PD but works for Jin-eon’s evil brother-in-law, Tae-seok. It seems to be a cover only, and I suspect the PD is pretending to be Yong-gi, by contacting Tae-seok’s brother Kyu-seok, who is a doctor specialising in Gaucher’s disease. Kyu-seok is also currently staying at Hae-kang and Jin-eon’s previous marital house, with Hae-kang’s mother (who’s become mute due to severe shock over Hae-kang’s “death”) as the housekeeper. This living arrangement seems to be the work of Jin-ri and Tae-seok, and I’d like to see how it gets played out.

I wonder if Seolli and Jin-eon will ever get married, and it would definitely be interesting to see how Seolli behaves now that she has to “protect” what she has now, when previously she was the third party. It sucks to be Jin-eon though, caught between unreasonable women throughout his life. I do think it is his fault though, for accepting Seolli if he can’t let go of Hae-kang completely.

2 thoughts on “I Have a Lover – Quarter-time Comments”

I like this drama too. It doesn’t wow me, but now that we’re finally in the present, I’m fully engaged. The first 9 episodes were a killer to watch. I was watching mainly because of the lead actors, but with so little backstory, it was hard to empathize with and care about them. We finally hear how the daughter was killed because of Do Hae Kang’s actions in the courtroom. And its interesting to watch Jin Eon’s anger/attraction when he’s with Yong-gi. Thanks for your thoughts on this one. It’s not getting much coverage anywhere.